China Stocks Decline Amid Global Market Concerns and Military Drills

China stocks dipped on Friday, influenced by positive U.S. economic data suggesting prolonged higher interest rates and China's military exercises around Taiwan. Major indices including the Shanghai Composite, CSI300, and Hang Seng saw notable declines. Particularly, financial, consumer staples, real estate, and healthcare sectors faced drops.

China stocks fell on Friday, tracking global markets lower as strong U.S. economic data overnight bolstered the prospect of interest rates staying higher for longer, damping risk appetite. Also denting investor sentiment, China's military carried out a second day of war games around Taiwan on Friday, with drills to test their ability to "seize power" and control key areas, exercises it has said were launched to punish Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te.

** At the midday break, the Shanghai Composite index was down 0.16% at 3,111.50 points. ** China's blue-chip CSI300 index was down 0.43%, with its financial sector sub-index lower by 0.66%, the consumer staples sector down 0.81%, the real estate index down 3.19% and the healthcare sub-index down 0.89%.

** Chinese H-shares listed in Hong Kong fell 1.29% to 6,615.3, while the Hang Seng Index was down 1.27% at 18,629.10. ** For the week, the CSI 300 has lost 1.4% so far, after five weeks of gains, while the Hang Seng has declined 4.7%.

** The smaller Shenzhen index was down 0.23%, the start-up board ChiNext Composite index was weaker by 0.72% and Shanghai's tech-focused STAR50 index was down 0.7%​. ** The Hang Seng Tech Index dropped 1.9% and the Hang Seng Mainland Properties Index slumped 3.8%.

** Hong Kong shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd slipped 0.3%, on course for fifth straight session of decline, after the Chinese e-commerce giant said on Thursday it would sell convertible bonds to raise about $4.5 billion and plans to use some of the proceeds to repurchase American Depositary Shares. ** Around the region, MSCI's Asia ex-Japan stock index was weaker by 0.95% while Japan's Nikkei index was down 1.06%.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)